Participatory & Co-creative Futures

Involving diverse participants in producing and contesting futures.

Contributors joined to one another and to a single shared outcome Ten markers sit around a ring at varying distances from the centre, so the group is uneven rather than uniform. Each is joined to the centre and to its neighbours, and the ring closes. At the centre, ringed in a second colour, is the outcome the group produced together.

At a glance

Produces
Futures produced with the people affected by them, and a record of what changed as a result.
Depends on
A decision the process can actually influence, and representation that is examined rather than assumed.
Fails when
Participants are asked to endorse a conclusion that was reached before they arrived.

Participatory futures methods open the production of futures knowledge to people beyond the research team: citizens, practitioners, communities and policymakers. The aim is both epistemic and democratic - better futures work, and futures work that more people can recognise as their own.

How we approach it

Participation is a research method, not a communications exercise. It changes what can be known, and it should change what is concluded.

  • We design for influence. Before starting, we establish what decisions the process can affect, so that participants are not asked to contribute to a conclusion that has already been reached.
  • Representation is examined rather than assumed. Who is in the room, who is absent, and what does the recruitment method make it difficult to hear?
  • Structured methods are used to make contribution possible across differences in confidence, language and expertise.
  • Findings are reported back. Participants receive an account of what changed as a result of their contribution, including where they were not followed.